Nobunaga's Ambition I & II on NES - NESfriend 

Not finding the subtle music of Yoko Kanno in both games and not finding the remarkable programming of these BASIC-type games makes me wonder if you are the right person to review such things. But to each their own.

"You got no bunga" and "I'm all out of bunga." Have now been added to my vernacular. Thank you.

I know they weren't for everyone, but I loved the Koei strategy games. Thanks for this awesome video!

That friend has gotta be REAL good if they're gonna sit down for this. Ambitious request.

4:20 Skill: 69 - Nice 😎 Men: 69 - Oh sure, go for it. Rice: 69 - Wait, what?!

I played the first Nobunaga as a rental, the cover was very appealing to me as a kid, I remember trying to understand it but my command of English was very limited back then, so I gave up. It is a good game, I think I will farm some bunaga or nobunga or cowabunga, grab a beer, or maybe 12, and beat that game. Great video, Trav!

In a parallel universe, this channel is run by the Ninja Turtles, and their "no bunga" replaces your "no bueno".

I hadn't played these but I did play Genghis Khan back in the day. I thought it was ok. It was certainly a game of patience, though rewarding

I always wanted to use Samurai for agriculture. The perfect use of a Samurai for a video game.

A new NES Friend and NES Works on the same day! I must be dreaming.

Came for the review but always stay for that last line/thought that you end with ❤

Genghis Khan is unironically one of my favorites on the NES but never tried the Nobunaga games. Might need to check’em out. Great video as usual. 👍

As Japanese as Koei games were, with the signature style of Kou Shibusawa, Koei tried their hands at western development. For example, "Celtic Tales: Balor of the Evil Eye" from 1995 was developed in-house at Koei in the United States by future Diablo II designer Stieg Hedlund. It's a very interesting RPG from the PC RPG depression era of 1995-1997, and it's a game I would have been very into if I had noticed it at the time. They had Canadian dev teams as well, but they disappeared in 2013 after a few forgotten games. They aren't quite the same company now that they've merged (and split and remerged) to form Koei Tecmo (or Tecmo Koei) making "Koei" and "Tecmo" brand names instead of separate entities. I can't find any studios that aren't Japanese at the company currently.

Thanks so much for taking the time to document such a historic series!!

Ever heard of Shingen the Ruler? Its a similar type game. Its thr only one i can think of that gives you instructions on the front of the cart. That may make a good companion video

I played Defender of the Crown on a dare not too long ago (yes, really), and was terrified that it would be a nigh-unintelligible mess like these Koei games. Fortunately, it's very user-friendly, surprisingly easy to get into, and never outlives its welcome. I was able to beat it after a few false starts and some online research, and would recommend it for people who want to get their feet wet in this genre. Looking forward to a review of it in the future.

Now I need to see KOEI do a TMNT strategy game. As a computer gamer for the most part (was also playing arcade games in the arcades), I wasn't really that much into console games and definitely never at the time considered the possibility of having strategy games released on them. I was pleased with my strategy games on my home computers and later PCs and never really thought about consoles. It took me by surprised when we reached the youtube era to find out you could not only have strategy games (or even simulators like Silent Service!) on home consoles, but also save!!! I never played this particular KOEI game, but I did some others, all on computers of the 80s and 90s. Their games always had one thing that made them feel different from most other strategy games of the period. More attention to the presentation. Be it the extra tunes, or the more fluff in graphics. Both of which while not necessary, definitely improved the experience when the actual game was good too. Glad to see they did a good job with these two games. Thank you for another great video.

Apparently the Nobunaga's Ambition franchise is one of my favorites strategy game series, and my favorite games in the series are actually Tenka Sousei and Souzou, and apparently the series was one of my inspirations for a strategy game that I am making.

The KOEI games are fun, but not for everyone.

I've been playing the original NES game for 30 years, and the best I've ever done is holding four territories for about 40 minutes before being crushed. I don't know what I'm doing.

Ahhh this brings back memories

I loved these games as a kid. I played them with dad a lot, and played the later SNES games and games in the series for various Playstations. The Gameboy version of the original helped save my sanity at one point. When my family moved during the summer of 99 every Gameboy game mom or I owned got thrown out by mistake except for the new game I had gotten to play during the move until my new room was set up That game is my least favorite video game of all time and I've played many games considered to be worst game ever contenders like Pac Man 2600 and ET and Nobunaga's Ambition was the first Gameboy game I got on the long, long road to rebuild my collection. (I hadn't owned it before though it was just the first game I got after the move.) I remember some runs of both the NES and Gameboy versions where I won by letting all the warlords and samurai not loyal to me die of old age.

The "waffle cookie" is an abacus; the calculator of the ancients.

I just discovered this game on a random multi-cart I bought on Amazon.

The original map painters. These were great for the time. They're still sort of trying, but Paradox is eating their lunch.

I'm actually a huge fan of Genghis Khan 2, Clan 😅the grey wolf.

This is a game ive always wanted to get into but seems impenetrable. Ive grabbed Pokemon Conquest which i think is this with Pokemon? And will try that at some point

I loved Genghis Khan for Genesis best of all the Koei games. It requires a LOT of learning, though. If you don't like Ogre Battle, you probably won't be into Koei 😧

Man Googles the BOMB!!!

It seems there was also a Famicom port of the next game, Nobunaga's Ambition: Lord of Darkness (or rather, 「版信長の野望・武将風雲録」 Nobunaga's Ambition: Records of the Generals), but I could not find any official NES port (probably because of the SNES port taking higher priority). Here is a playthrough of the FC port: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mzb3etOB2tM.html

I really want to like these types of games, I just cant get into them, ill keep trying, maybe one day it will click and ill have hundreds of hours of new games to explore.

You can choose up to 8 players eh... Are there any nes games that support more "players"? (I know it's not simultaneous)

I know Koei has a long legacy, but I'll stick with Aerobiz, thank you.

I loved Genghis Khan II on the SNES -- it's really the game that introduced me to high-concept strategy games (now I slave over Hearts of Iron IV, haha). I had no idea that same company made so many similar games!

Can't wait for Trav to heart this comment in 2 months ❤

nobunaga's ambition was the best game nes ever saw. i can't say the same for "nobunaga's ambition 2." the original was rebooted on snes also (because it was so good) obviously it ran smoother and had better graphics on snes. sorry you never got to enjoy it with human friends, i'll give it a whirl with you sometime if you want. as for your damiyo's stats you may have misjudged which 3 are important. intelligence in the game, i'm not sure what it relates to really and it's probably one of the two least important stats, truely what determines intelligence here is the choices you make and your head for doing quick math and sound estimates. tthe other least important stat is surely charisma, because even if you start the game with a low charisma, through gameplay you will have to give a lot and often to your citizens (people) and men (soldiers); likewise when you do so it will cause your charisma to rise and you will eventually have a high charisma inevitably.

1:23 I feel personally attacked. I'm a fully grown adult and I didn't even realize I'd been reading it incorrectly until right now, watching this video. In my defense, I find this game boring AF so it's not like I see the title all that frequently lol

These are fun to collect CIB as they come with thick instruction manuals and maps but these are some of the most boring games ever to me LOL.

i’ll give someone my copy of this crappy game